Noob questions about casting .458 Socom

[barrysuperhawk]

Sorry for this, feel free to flame me or point me in the right direction.

I have been casting my own 12 ga slugs for a couple years, and have had great success, but I have not had to pay attention to my alloy or sizing or anything else. Now I want to start casting Lee .457 - 500 gr spitzer's and I realize there is more I don't know that what I do. My end goal is to shoot those 500's out of a 458 SOCOM.

Currently, all of the lead I have is, well, a bastard combination of range recovery bullets, scrap NRC lead, and pretty much anything I could find that would melt [lead wise]. I am guessing that my lead is fairly close to pure, as the percentage of wheelweights and remelts is low. I have a 7/8 oz Lee 12 ga. mould, and a couple of ingot pans.

So, would anyone mind walking me through this from start to finish, assuming nothing?

[primersp]

hello
i use principaly recovered bullet at range for source of casting ,make a good fluxing and
quench in water and you have a pretty hard bullet.

good luck
hello from france

[barrysuperhawk]

Well, if all I had was recovered range lead then I might be OK, but the vast bulk of what I have is unknown, suspected pure lead. Since I never had to care, all I did was just melt everything togeather and pour ingots.. Some came out with a cool shiney rainbow color - like oil on water, but upon re-melting, it went back to frosted lead color. I don't even have a thermometer, I just crank up my furnace and when it starts to drip, I go to town.... I have considered looking for a hardness tester, but I wouldn't have the first clue how to use it.

Is this mythical Lyman book available online anywhere, or better yet, in electronic format?

[jdgabbard]

Well that "cool shiney rainbow color" sounds like zinc contamination to me! Which is a bad thing. But, hopefully with a low temp set on your pot and proper skimming of the melt you should be able to slowly get it out of your mix. As zinc is lighter then lead, and will float to the top of the melt.

As for your 458 SOCOM, can't help you there. As for the casting of the boolits, it should be pretty much the same. One you find the mix that will work good for the application, you hold the mold in one hand, while you ladle pour (preferable with larger calibers) with the other. Wait for the the boolit to solidify, then cut the sprue, open the blocks, drop the boolit and repeat.

[missionary5155]

Good morning and WELCOME to the world of Lead Recycling
AS you already have basic equipment for casting I would not be real concerned yet with many Bells and whistles.... You may not yet NEED any thing else beside a mold.
But you should start by slugging your throat area just in front of the chamber. That is THE place you need to fill with your boolit. A boolit .001-.003 larger will probably help you out. How fast is the TWIST in this barrel ? How rough is it ?
Next how FAST are you going to push this boolit ? What is the Preasure going to be behind this Boolit ? What is this Boolit going to be used for ?
Yea I know all you want to do is shoot the thing... but why not start out right... These are things over time you considered and decided for the shootgun slugs... With a rifle barrel you could end up with a foot of lead plated tubing which is no fun to clean out.

[barrysuperhawk]

Good morning and WELCOME to the world of Lead Recycling
AS you already have basic equipment for casting I would not be real concerned yet with many Bells and whistles.... You may not yet NEED any thing else beside a mold.
But you should start by slugging your throat area just in front of the chamber. That is THE place you need to fill with your boolit. A boolit .001-.003 larger will probably help you out. How fast is the TWIST in this barrel ? How rough is it ?
Next how FAST are you going to push this boolit ? What is the Preasure going to be behind this Boolit ? What is this Boolit going to be used for ?
Yea I know all you want to do is shoot the thing... but why not start out right... These are things over time you considered and decided for the shootgun slugs... With a rifle barrel you could end up with a foot of lead plated tubing which is no fun to clean out.


Ok, a 500gr boolit out of my .458 SOCOM should exit the muzzle in the neighborhood of 1000 FPS or so. Since I have always used Jacketed thus far, I know that .458 jacketed bullets are quite accurate, so I assume that I should be aiming for .459 on the Boolit. According to the book, the limit of this load is 35,000 PSI, and looking at comparable loads, this should be well under that. This boolit is going to be a target/plink round, and to impress and awe my friends...

To do this right, is why I am here...

[barrysuperhawk]

Also, if there is anyone reading this that already cast's these, I would be interested in buying a few to load up in dummy rounds and for general testing...

[longbow]

Possibly a good starting point is to read "Cast Bullets for Beginner and Expert" by joeb33050 here is a link for downloading:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=36337

This may answer many of your questions or maybe give you ammunition (no pun intended) to ask more questions about specifics.

Longbow

[barrysuperhawk]

Ok, I got it....but OMG 275 individual files!! Yikes!

[1950Target]

I'm 52, been handloading since I was 9. I've never loaded CAST BOOLITS in any AR, but I have loaded for and shot thousands of rounds in a variety of gas operated semi-auto rifles including FALS, GARANDS, M1 CARBINES, M14S, FN49S.

This is the advice I offer:

1) Linotype cold water quenched.

2) GAS CHECK GAS CHECKS GAS CHEKS.

3) FIND THE LUBE THAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU.

4) SLUG YOUR BARREL AND SIZE APPROPRIATELY.

5) CLEAN YOUR GAS PORT!

None of these things are that complicated and can lead to a great deal of inexpensive practice ammo. Don't try to duplicate military ball velocities that is UNECESSARY and only accelerates any downside effects.

[BD]

I'm heading down a similar road, only with lighter/faster boolits in the .450 bushmaster. I don't believe you're going to need real hard boolits, your current alloy may be just fine. If you did want to harden it up a bit a little chilled shot in the pot, and water quenching, should get you plenty hard enough.

Do you have the 14 twist barrel? If so the 500 grainer at 1,000 should be an easy thing to do. Gas checks would seem like a good idea in a gas gun, and I think a powder that burns near 100% would be as well.

BD

[rockrat]

Second the water quench. I know my Lee 500gr spitzer mould is a pain to cast with. You will probably need a bullet around .459-.460" in diameter. Found in my 450 bushmaster, a gas check boolit shoots alot better than a non gas-checked boolit. You might be OK at 1000fps and a plain base. You might check out 458socom.com , do a google search for load data and you can find a spreadsheet with data for the 500 gr bullets at 980 to 1300fps. Also try Steves reloading pages or Reloadersnest.com. Might be some there. You will probably have to single load the rounds as OAL will be in excess of what will fit in the magazine.
If you could find some wheelweights to cast with, might be better. Also might need one of the "pipe stem" cleaners for your gas tube, but maybe not. Think in the spreadsheet I glance at, they used 4198,3031 and surplus 4895. good luck